Racial Inequality

Life during the 1940’s in South Africa is rife with racial inequality. Though blacks are the majority race in the country, they are subjugated by the white minority who will not let them ascend to positions of power or have a piece of the country’s gold mining wealth. Blacks live on land that is too poor to farm. They have little education. Families and tribes are broken apart because of the gold mines, which draw young black men to live in faraway,basic compounds for low wages. Everyone lives in fear. The blacks live in fear of angering or offending whites and suffering reprisals. The whites live in fear that the blacks will rise up against the injustice in their lives and try to take back power of the country.

Each character in the novel deals with the issue of racial inequality in a different way...